DUCK FOOT PISTOL

When you think of a handgun, you usually picture one where the grip, trigger, hammer, and barrel all lie within a vertical plane which is easily aligned between the shooter’s eye and the target. Now imagine a handgun where the barrels are not in alignment with the rest of the components but are spread out on a horizontal plane with the muzzles each pointing in a different direction. This odd handgun was named the duck foot pistol because the barrels were splayed out much like the toes of a duck’s foot.

This odd handgun design was created in the mid-1700’s and was produced into the early part of the 1800s. There is little history about the design, but it is believed it was created for personnel such as sea captains and prison wardens who may be faced with mutinous ship crews or prisoner riots. Many of the duck foot pistols had an even number of barrels, none of which aligned with the shooter’s eye, making it nearly impossible to aim with any degree of accuracy. However, if facing such a formidable weapon, one could be easily intimidated because you cannot avoid being struck by the shot.

There are a number of varieties that are known to exist, with barrels as few as three and as many as eight, of which all are discharged simultaneously. The four barrel duck foot may have been the most common where the barrels are spread with a twenty-degree arc between each barrel. This arrangement allowed the shot pattern to be spread across an eighty-degree arc. If the shooter is facing a riotous mob, he can be assured almost everyone in the front will be wounded by the scattered shot.

The muzzle of each barrel appears to have a deep octagonal rifling, but these extend just a short way into the barrel and are designed to fit a special wrench which allows the barrels to be removed from the rest of the pistol so they can be loaded from the breech.  Aside from the shallow wrench grooves, the barrels were smooth bore.

Many of the duck foot pistols were flintlock firearms with just a single cock and flint. The priming pan had several touch holes, so when the flint sparked, all the barrels discharged together. As one can well imagine, the recoil would have been quite significant, and the firearm would be terribly slow to reload.

If you were the sea captain facing a mob of mutineers, you were hopeful your duck foot pistol would intimidate them into better behavior, because you would only get one shot and no instant reloads.